Living Love - Week of October 12

"I tell you the truth," [Jesus] said, "this poor widow has put in more than all the others. All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on." —LUKE 21:3-4

Author Sebastian Junger was hitchhiking through Wyoming when a disheveled man carrying a lunch box asked if Junger had food. "Clearly he didn't have any," recalled Junger, "and if I admitted that I did, he'd ask for some.… Twenty years later I still remember my answer: ‘I got some cheese.'

" ‘You won't make it to California with just a little cheese,' he said. ‘You'll starve.' " Junger began to understand. This man was offering him food. Though Junger protested, the man gave him a sandwich, an apple, and a bag of chips. "I learned a lot of things in college, I thought.… But I had to stand out there on that frozen piece of interstate to learn true generosity from a homeless man."

We can learn great things about love in the least likely places. Those who possess little might teach us the most about giving. Perhaps that is because the neediest know best of all the importance of small acts of generosity.

Each of us has the potential to love others well. So when generosity shows up in unusual places, don't be surprised. God might want to show you that he's ready to give good gifts when you least expect them.

Prayer

Dear God, forgive me for the times when I have rejected someone else's generosity because it came from an unexpected source.

Dr. Gary Chapman is the beloved best-selling author of The Five Love Languages and Love as a Way of Life. For more information, click here.